PRODUCTS | Shower toilets
MAIN: Wall-hung
AquaClean Mera shower toilet from Geberit
LEFT: Cleaning nozzle and wand of a Toto washlet toilet
water. Larden says: “With the cultural realisation that one wouldn’t wash any other form of dirt using just paper, and an increasing concern in personal well-being, washing with water has become an important element of well- being and hygiene, and indeed vital when considering bathroom design and product innovations.”
All the manufacturers in this feature NAPIER BATHROOMS, EDINBURGH
in the showroom’ Johnny Bacigalupo, MD of Napier Bathrooms in Edinburgh, explained how he started creating video demonstrations to help customers understand these new products
e’ve always had an interest in shower toilets, because I think that anything that enhances a person’s experience within their bathroom is important.
W
Since 2011, we started to explore the shower toilet. I’ve always thought that the British mentality towards bathrooms is quite Victorian. When we talk about bathrooms we often get timid and people get red in the face. Having them in the showroom gets
everyone talking. They ask, what are these things that when you walk by open up and say hello to you. It will take time for washlets to be an everyday activity, but I’m starting to
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see a difference. As mentalities change, and we begin to see it as a product of necessity and not luxury, it will drive the price down, more will be sold, and it will be more common. Once washlets started to be a success for Napier, we discovered that we were having calls from clients who were unsure of how to take care of them. At first, we guided them to commercial-style videos, but that made things feel distant.
Shower toilets are not a new
product – the technology is 40 years old – but it is new to the UK market. I was aware that if you show polished videos, everything is at a distance and doesn’t feel real. What we wanted to do was show how to polish and clean a Toto. We decided to make the video very informal like they were standing in the showroom and filming us doing a demo. We can explain the user experience like they are in the showroom – not a scripted performance.
As mentalities change and we begin to see it as a product of necessity and
not luxury, it will drive the price down ‘They are a talking point
say they’ve seen a dramatic rise in sales of shower toilets in 2020 – you can probably guess why. Asuka Osada, marketing manager at Toto, says: “There has been an increase in interest over the past six months, as people have a heightened awareness of hygiene and a greater knowledge and understanding of the product.” In contrast, Geberit believes that the rise in popularity of shower toilets happened before 2020. It says that the awareness and demand were increasing long before the pandemic. Larden explains this phenomenon:
“The rise in popularity of the shower toilet has been increasing long before the coronavirus pandemic, as awareness around its undeniable benefits continues to grow, marking an important cultural change as the UK begins to adopt the new standards in personal hygiene that the shower toilet offers.”
Luxury, hi-tech and eco-friendly
Hygiene is one of the major selling points of a shower toilet. But when you look closer at these kinds of toilets, they fit a lot of different trends.
Shower toilets were first introduced in this country as a luxury product, but they have moved from five-star hotels to people’s houses. If someone wants a spa-like, hotel-chic bathroom, then a shower toilet would fit that aesthetic. Is your customer tech-mad? Then shower toilets will fit perfectly in a design that also has a smart shower and taps.
Do you have an eco-conscious customer? Shower toilets remove the need for toilet paper and eliminate a big part of paper waste from their daily lives. Or maybe they are just afraid of more toilet paper shortages and want to remove that hassle from their lives. As well as technical innovations, shower toilets can be streamlined and fashionable. The old shower toilets used to be chunky, but now they blend in more with the bathroom. For example, take Laufen’s Cleanet Navia. Swiss designer Peter Wirz explains: “My aim with the Cleanet Navia was to create a classic designer WC with a minimalistic, timeless look, that has another ace up its sleeve when you take a closer look.”
Timid
As much as the British love toilet humour, some can be quite timid about new experiences in the bathroom. The automatic spray, a heated seat, a blow dryer, automatic flushing, sensor lids, lights – all controlled by remote control or app – can be a daunting experience for some customers, whose toilet experience starts and ends with a flush handle.
Retailers first need to calm the
nerves of the customer before even speaking about its uses. Amanda Turner, associate product
· November 2020
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